GUILTY ON ALL CHARGES

Thirteen years to the day, acquitted of the horrendous murder of his wife and her friend, OJ has been found guilty of all 12 counts against him in the Las Vegas hotel robbery and is shown being handcuffed prior to being led to jail.

I hated the thought that such an icon had committed murder and reserved judgment until the evidence was presented and only then was I forced to come to terms with the idea he had indeed
"done it".

But, that being said, I am bothered by this latest conviction for armed robbery and kidnapping.
The next ten paragraphs are from AP reporter Linda Duetsch:

quote: Simpson, who now lives in Miami, did not testify but was heard on a recording of the confrontation screaming that the dealers had stolen his property. "Don't let nobody out of this room," he declared and told the other men to scoop up his items, which included a photo of Simpson with former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover.

Four other men charged in the case struck plea bargains that saved them from potential prison sentences in return for their testimony. Some of them had criminal records or were otherwise compromised in some way. One, for example, was an alleged pimp who testified he had a revelation from God telling him to take a plea bargain.

Memorabilia dealer Thomas Riccio, who arranged and secretly recorded the hotel-room confrontation, said he netted $210,000 from the media for the tapes.

Similarly, minutes after the Sept. 13, 2007, incident, one of the alleged victims, sports-memorabilia dealer Alfred Beardsley, was calling news outlets, and the other, Bruce Fromong, spoke of getting "big money" from the case.

Simpson's past haunted the case. Las Vegas police officers were heard in the recordings chuckling over Simpson's misfortune and crowing that if Los Angeles couldn't "get" him, they would.

During jury selection, Simpson's lawyers expressed fears that people who believed he got away with murder might see this case as a chance to right a wrong.

As a result, an usually large pool of 500 potential jurors was called, and they were given a 26-page questionnaire. Half were almost instantly eliminated after expressing strong feelings that Simpson should have been convicted of murder.

The judge instructed the jurors to put aside Simpson's earlier case.

In closing arguments, Galanter acknowledged that what Simpson did to recover his memorabilia was not right. "But being stupid, and being frustrated is not being a criminal," he said.

He added: "This case has taken on a life of its own because of Mr. Simpson's involvement. You know that. I know that. Every cooperator, every person who had a gun, every person who had an ulterior motive, every person who signed a book deal, every person who got paid money, the police, the district attorney's office, is only interested in one thing: Mr. Simpson." end quote.

This Thomas Riccio sure went to a great deal of trouble to be sure he had the room wired for voice recordings. Why? Greed has interjected itself into what on the surface was made to seem an "unexpected robbery".....or was it unexpected? This is what bothers me about this conviction....it smacks of "set up" to me. You may say he got away with double murder the first time....BUT...does this justify the means used to "get him" now?

These are just my own personal thoughts here and perhaps I am being extremely naive in this matter. What do you feel about this verdict..leaving out your feelings that he indeed escaped the first time around?